First quarter real estate numbers are much brighter

Thursday

Apr 11, 2013 at 3:15 AM

By John Nolanjnolan@fosters.com

ROCHESTER — The first quarter numbers for real estate activity for Strafford County are in and the news is good — there has been a 16 percent increase in recorded mortgages compared to the first three months of 2012, and the number of foreclosures for Q1 is down for the third year in a row.

The figures for Rochester are even better than for the county as a whole, for there were 289 recorded mortgages from January through March — a 21 percent increase. In addition, foreclosures have dropped from 33 in Q1 of 2012 to 19 this year, which is the lowest first quarter number since 2007.

Register of Deeds Dennis P. Vachon, who provided the latest statistics, said, “It’s heartening to see the number of foreclosures continue its gradual decline, as this suggests that fewer homeowners are in financial distress. It also indicates that home prices are stabilizing and fewer homeowners are choosing to abandon properties that are underwater (worth less than what is owed on them.)”

He added, “The City of Dover continues to lead the county in terms of economic activity, though Rochester is not far behind.”

Realtor Bill Cormier, of Hourihane and Cormier, in Rochester, agreed with Vachon’s assessment.

“We have turned the corner,” he said. “In my 41 years of experience, it is the cycle grinding round.”

Joking that he can predict the past much better than the future, Cormier, nonetheless, is buoyant when looking ahead.

“In Massachusetts, they are knocking on doors looking for listings, and that tends to spread north. It always has,” said Cormier.

He said that a lot of the housing stock currently on the market in this area were foreclosures, and some of that stock was in a state of decline.

Craig Lancey, of RW Real Estate, in Farmington, a town where mortgage activity has increased from 48 in Q1 of last year to 81 in Q1 of this year, said, “You are seeing people buying houses. They realize interest rates are not going to be a give-away forever. Interest rates will go up sooner rather than later.”

Calling it a “night and day changeover,” Lancey said that some potential sellers, who had not listed their properties because of low prices, were now getting off the fence.

“Prices are definitely moving up,” he said.

Packy Campbell, of RSA, in Rochester, said that his company was doing just as many deals as previously, but the properties were better, selling faster, and going for higher prices.

“Short sales are finally healing the market,” he said, “and anti-flip rules have been relaxed from 180 days to 90 days allowing good old American capitalism to do its thing.”

Campbell, who is also a developer, said that he was not ready to start building new homes at this time.

“It’s close ... maybe next spring. There’s not enough profit in it yet,” he said.